Monthly Archive:April 2017

Whenever I meet with clients, I leave feeling invigorated, ignited, electrified. This morning, I left the comforts of the Dorset-surrounds and travelled to the the catchment area of the shadow cast by The Shard, to meet with the Marketing and Delivery teams at Talmix – the home of independent talent.

As marketers, we’re always thinking of where next to deliver for our clients – the next plan, the next campaign. But after meeting with the team, who I’ve now come to know well, I left feeling, that although this was a discussion about what next to deliver and how to amplify what we’re doing even more, I’d taken much more than I realised. Meeting with a team who is passionate (I know… I actually detest that overused word) about truly delivering a good customer experience, solving their clients’ problems and helping their community of over 27,000 independent consultants discover their next opportunity – I left feeling completely hopeful and expectant of the next wave of amazing things ahead.

And now, as I find myself on the train back to the countryside, and the view of the Shard gets smaller and smaller, I feel completely blessed in having the opportunity to dip in every now and then, align myself with my client’s expectations, keep check that I am fulfilling what they need me to fulfil – and allow myself to become completely excited and obsessed with the next phase of the project – as I did on Day 1.

“YOU ABSOLUTELY need to be on social media,” was a discussion I heard the other day between a young 30-something year old woman and her 60+ year old manufacturing client.

Here’s a thought. You don’t HAVE to be on social media.

<gasp>what!?</gasp>

No. You don’t HAVE to do anything, unless you’re prepared to invest the time into making it good.

Admittedly, in my early days of online marketing, in my mind, establishing a social presence was not the only thing, it was THE thing that would create an impression of your brand. But since then, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with business people from all kinds of industries, business sizes and one thing that I have learnt over the years, is that having a social profile is absolutely critical – provided that you are prepared to invest the time into maintaining it.

And that’s where the wheels sometimes fall off. Often, the client admits that they simply don’t have the time, and asks me to manage their social presence on their behalf, and sometimes all they need is an easy-to-use template and management tool that allows them to spend 5-10 minutes every day, or every other day, on ensuring that their social voice echoes their physical one.

But it’s the times when clients realise they need a social media presence, having it all set up and looking great, but soon realise, despite their best endeavours at keeping things updated, that they simply don’t have the time to manage their social media voice – as they are simply focussing their efforts on building their business and delivering the services that clients are after.

Social Media is not just your loudhailer – it’s a core business tool that enables you to reach an audience that you otherwise wouldn’t, and opens up opportunities that you otherwise may have missed. But if you aren’t prepared to put in the work, those opportunities will forever remain hidden to you.

So, instead of having the “couldn’t-be-bothered” profile, rather consider removing a social presence, until you have a plan in place that allows you (or your team) to regularly update your social media profiles – and truly uncover the benefits of an active social business voice.

And if you don’t have the time, then chat to us about how we manage this for our existing clients – and perhaps we can find an easy compromise that gets you what you need, without looking like a balloon that has lost all it’s pop.

What you say says a lot about you (obvs). What you don’t say, also says a lot about you. But how you behave is a foghorn in the mist that truly broadcasts exactly what it would be like to work with you.

Recently, the topic of indirect communication has come up in several conversations I’ve had with fellow business owners, and clients.

Here’s the deal.

Social Media: It’s a thing that allows us to promote ourselves to whoever will follow, building an audience for our services, giving us a bigger platform to broadcast from and share our news, right? Well, sort of.

What many of us tend to forget is the indirect side of Social Media (and for the sake of this blog, I’ll include what we put on our website too).

What you don’t say on social media speaks louder for you than you probably care to realise.

Here’s an example (and I do love a great anecdotal example).

I have a friend who lived in the US, and who, together with his wife and children, tragically passed away in 2016. At the time, I sent my condolences to the extended family members – none of whom I actually knew. Not expecting a response, I nonetheless received a friendship request from the wife’s mom. Happily, I accepted, but that was the end of our correspondence. We’ve never really spoken. Fast forward to a year later, and out of the blue, I receive a message from her this past week (again, we have never met, and never actually spoken), which reads (and I paraphrase), “Just a quick note to tell you how much I enjoy you! You are such a bright light in this crazy world. Thanks again for making me smile”.

And then it hit me.

How I have behaved indirectly, has created an impression (thankfully a good one!) of what I am like, as a person, while at the same time, actually having forgotten that I had given access to my profile, I had been acting completely naturally, without agenda or fear, and without much pre-meditated thought. She had built up an understanding of who I am as an individual, what I would be like to know and to such a degree that she has invited me to visit them when next I am in the US.

Turning towards the business communication where social interactivity is a much more planned, thought-out, pre-meditated activity which aims to show branded messaging, company vision, but at the same time practiced spontaneity to appear human, likeable and someone easy to do business with. But how easy do we really make it for our customers to get a handle on who we are? Do you give your customer enough information that allows them to interpret indirect communication into an impression that will leave them wanting to do business with you?

Here are a few ways that you can do that:

Membership of Groups

Customer testimonials / references

Articles you follow / like / share / comment on

Individuals you communicate with (or don’t communicate with).

Causes you believe in and support

Language you use in your posts (confrontational, friendly, jargon-based, indifferent)

All of the above are elements of your social profile that speaks for you, and represents what you stand for. All of these are things that allow your customer a little bit of insight into who you are as an organisation – without you broadcasting it yourself.

Think about your own LinkedIn profile for a second (if you have one).

Example A: The profile which tells the reader all about what you’ve done and why they need to pay attention to you. You’re probably telling us that you have done several amazing things, and succeeded at many impressives tasks. Great.

Example B: The profile which does the above, but also demonstrates ex-colleague / client testimonials which echo your Amazingness, groups that you belong to that echo the services you provide, a profile picture that is befitting of the audience you’re trying to capture, volunteer activities or causes that you’re passionate about (which may note have anything to do with the services you provide).

Which profile would result in a higher level of confidence in the person in question? The one where the individual is doing all the talking, or the one where the things s/he does, belongs to, believes in, echoes what they’re telling you about themselves?

If you’re not standing out – there’s a reason why. You need to allow your customer the opportunity to develop their impression of you – and hopefully, it will be a good one. If not – then we need to talk.

The March giveaway has been and gone, and the lucky winner, local business Winyards Gap, won themselves a free business photo-session. As it is Easter, and because we are feeling generous – we’re running this competition in April again.